MIAMI (Reuters) – Eight U.S. sailors at a Florida naval station fraudulently married Polish and Romanian women in order to collect extra housing allowances, according to federal charges filed on Tuesday
The women did not live with their Navy husbands, but used the sham marriages to apply for U.S. citizenship, U.S. Attorney Paul Perez said in a news release.
The sailors, seven of whom are still in the Navy, were all stationed at the Mayport naval station in northeast Florida.
They were charged with conspiracy, marriage fraud and making false claims to the government to collect $35,000 worth of extra housing allowances.
The tax-free allowances for off-base housing are based partly on marital status and number of dependents.
“They only married them so they could collect that money,” said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Many relationships across the country work on that exact same principle.
Marriage for economic gain? Gasp!
Anyone ever heard of the term "Contract Marriage?"
I knew a couple people who got "married" in Hawaii in order to get off post. She was a practicing bi-/lesbian, and as far as I could tell, he just wanted out of the barracks.
I doubt it lasted more than a couple days past her ETS (where she followed another girl to Germany).
This is my pet peeve as an immigration attorney: people keep saying that she/he married him/her 'to get a citizenship.' Those women used their marriage to those sailors to apply for a green card, not citizenship. You have to get a green card first, then after 3 years if you are still married to a USC spouse you can apply for a citizenship (instead of 5 years for all other green card holders).
as for the idea of marrying to get BAH, it's a very popular one among junior troops both male and female…
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Receiving Green Card
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